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Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, UnitedHealth Group and Intuitive Surgical are four healthcare companies investors could investigate for a long-term portfolio—not a verified “best four” list or buy recommendation. The available company evidence is uneven, and there is no dated, comparable valuation for all four. A decade-long holding period does not guarantee a positive return; consider each business alongside its risks, financial results and price.
Why these four are candidates, not a ranked list
Healthcare companies can earn money in very different ways. Drugmakers depend on medicines, research and development, manufacturing and intellectual property. A surgical-technology company is exposed to procedures, equipment and related sales. An insurer and healthcare-services company faces medical costs, reimbursement rules and regulation. Those differences make a simple ranking misleading.
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Morningstar’s 2026 healthcare coverage identifies drug manufacturing and diagnostics and research as long-term opportunity areas, while emphasizing that investors should consider a share price relative to fair value. That is a reason to assess valuation—not evidence that every healthcare stock is attractive or that these four are undervalued.
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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →| Company | Business lens | Evidence available here | Key diligence question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eli Lilly | Pharmaceutical growth and execution | Company filing index lists its 2025 annual report and SEC filing. | What do the filing’s product concentration, pipeline, capacity, competition and patent risks mean for future earnings? |
| Novo Nordisk | Pharmaceutical franchise and strategic change | 2025 annual report and September 21, 2026 capital-markets update. | Can the company execute amid competition, and how should investors distinguish ambitions from guidance? |
| UnitedHealth Group | Insurance and healthcare services | 2025 Form 10-K reports a substantial year-over-year decline in earnings from operations. | How sustainable are earnings if medical-cost trends, restructuring and other pressures change? |
| Intuitive Surgical | Surgical robotics and procedure exposure | Secondary coverage surfaced installed-base and procedure-growth discussion; that alone does not establish an investment case. | What do the company’s own filings show about procedures, recurring revenue, placements, competition and valuation? |
What should investors investigate in each company?
Eli Lilly: test the growth story against execution
Lilly is a pharmaceutical growth candidate, but a growth label is not a decade-long thesis. Its 2025 annual report and SEC filing are the primary places to examine the sources and durability of revenue, dependence on particular products, pipeline progress, manufacturing capacity, competition and patent exposure. Those details can change the expected earnings path materially.
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The filing index establishes where to look; it does not, by itself, verify a current valuation or support a specific return expectation. Review the full filing and current disclosures before deciding whether the company’s prospects justify its share price.
Novo Nordisk: separate strategic ambitions from financial guidance
Novo Nordisk’s 2025 annual report describes a pivotal period and a dynamic healthcare landscape. Its September 21, 2026 capital-markets update sets out ambitions for 2030 from a 2026 baseline. The company says those ambitions are inherently uncertain and are not financial outlook or guidance. Treat them as management’s strategic aims, not as promised results.
Rank #2
For a long-term case, assess the company’s latest disclosures on competition and execution, then test whether its reported financial performance supports the expectations embedded in the share price. A strategic target cannot substitute for that work.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesUnitedHealth Group: account for medical-cost and operating volatility
UnitedHealth’s 2025 Form 10-K reports earnings from operations of $19.0 billion in 2025, compared with $32.3 billion in 2024. The company attributes the decline to factors including elevated medical-cost trends, restructuring and other actions, portfolio changes, and reduced impacts related to the Change Healthcare cyberattack. This is a company-reported historical comparison, not a forecast.
Rank #3
The comparison is a reminder that a large healthcare business is not automatically a defensive or predictable investment. Review the filing’s explanations, the company’s subsequent results and disclosures, and the factors that could affect medical costs and operations before projecting a recovery or assuming the decline will persist.
Intuitive Surgical: verify the procedure and recurring-revenue economics
Intuitive Surgical is a surgical-robotics candidate whose business is exposed to procedure activity. Discussion of its installed base and procedure growth in secondary coverage is a lead for investigation, not enough to establish a current stock recommendation.
Use the company’s own filings to check procedure volume, system placements, recurring instrument and service revenue, competition and regulatory risks. Then consider valuation. Without those primary-source checks, a detailed claim about the strength or durability of its investment case would go beyond the evidence available here.
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How to decide whether any candidate is worth owning
Use the same questions for all four, while adapting them to each company’s business model:
- Understand how it earns. Identify the main sources of revenue and what must happen for those sources to grow or remain durable.
- Check the evidence for staying power. Look for support in the company’s portfolio, pipeline, installed base, scale or customer relationships; do not treat a familiar name as proof of a lasting advantage.
- Map the earnings risks. Examine product or clinical setbacks, competition, reimbursement and regulation, patent or exclusivity changes, execution, and—where relevant—medical-cost trends.
- Assess financial resilience. Compare revenue, earnings, cash generation, debt and reinvestment needs using consistent periods in the latest filings. The material summarized here does not provide a comparable financial review for all four companies.
- Judge the share price separately from the business. Use a dated price and a clearly explained valuation method or fair-value estimate. A strong company can still be a poor purchase at an excessive price.
- Revisit the thesis. A decade is long enough for competitive, regulatory and financial conditions to change. Review filings and new disclosures over time rather than treating an initial purchase as a set-and-forget decision.
What this four-stock list cannot establish
The available information does not establish that these are the definitive four healthcare stocks to own, that their valuations are attractive, or that they will outperform a diversified alternative. It also does not provide a consistent, current comparison of their financial resilience or a verified decade-long return forecast. Before investing, read each company’s latest annual and quarterly filings, check current guidance and material developments, and compare valuation inputs as of the same date. Consider whether a concentrated group of individual stocks fits your risk tolerance and broader portfolio.
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